NOLA, here I come
So I am about to sink into the abyss of a Seasonal Affective Depression brought on my a combination of too much work for no $ and nearly 40 days (and 40 nights) of rain. It’s Easter tomorrow and I’m dressed like it’s Thanksgiving, contemplating building an ark or moving to Mexico forever…
Perhaps it’s a quarter life crisis but I was feeling restless and recently became preoccupied with going and piercing my navel.
Anyways,now I’m all excited, in May I’ll be back to New Orleans for 4 days to give feedback about the experience of my SAMHSA deployment in the Katrina Assistance project. Though my role was small, I am excited to see some of my colleagues again, and to help make sense of what we have all learned form what is apparently one of the largest scale mental health projects ever attempted.
Then in AUgust I am booked for 5 days back in NOLA for the APA convention, I’ll be presenting with 3 of my honorable colleagues and fellow volunteers, and trying to get in on a Habitat for Humanity 1 day building project in the much beleagured 9th ward. Of course I am also thrilled to death about eating gumbo and seeing the Preservation Hall jazz band & more beignets than my arteries can stand!
Hmmm. I remember my very 1st visit to NOLA. I got on a gray line bus by myself and did the cemeteries tour, went to the aquarium and zoo and boat ride on the Missisipi, met a self proclaimed "Southern Democrat" who bought us drinks, hung at a vampire bar and ordered flaming absinthe, had to buy a tiny, stringy, halter top to wear as it was sweltering, and ate oysters and drank Heinekens before I got on the plane home.
Against all commons sense, I signed up for the 5k race as well. Now lest you scoff that 5K is a piddly run, let me remind you that NOLA in August is SWAMP weather. Last year’s 5K in D.C. felt like suffocation under a wet blanket, I can only imagine what this year will be like! But hey, I like a challenge. I guess it’s like thos folks who go run around in high altitudes or humidty on purpose when they train-so that in normal conditions they can leave the rest of us in their literal dust.
I hope I can track down some of the NOPD I worked with, they are all scattered now-kicked off their temporary shelters on the ships. I know many left town for good, and others are in trailers or other temporary shelter.
So, 2 trips back to NOLA this year give me a lot to look forward to.
And a friend’s informative e-mail about her painful belly ring infections have led me to rethink the body art for now! Guess I’ll just settle for working on these abs in yoga class…
music
KFOG played a song the other morning that blew me away - it was everything I’d been thinking for a long time.
www.compadrerecords.com
and look up James McMurtry and the song "we can’t make it here anymore".
enough said.
on a happier and more rockin’ note, my favorite (and only) greek guitar god Jason Mezilis and his band are worth checking out too-especially if one is ever in L.A.
www.yourhorriblesmile.com
this is an “educational” funny website
indiansareasian.com
really, I love my brown brothers and sisters. They apparently run half our industries from afar, they are the only people on BART who seem to work as late as I do (so I walk safely back to my car in the dark amidst a small posse of moustache indians who are probably all near millionares, who wear nice slacks with goofy tennis shoes).
Alas, it is not only other asians who don’t always feel that indians are asian, I’ve met asian indians who call themselves "caucasians". Hmm. sure whatever, we can all be whomever we want, yo.
Goal setting
So all the business books I am reading (as I am pondering becoming an Inc. or opening a priv. practice/consulting gig) blather relentlessly about how one MUST WRITE DOWN goals. and set timelines on said goals. So, OK, that sounds a lot like therapuetic treatment plans so I dig on that. One article noted that some pathetic, puny percentile of the overall population actually take the time to write out clear goals…like 2%.
2005 goals we/I met were: complete triathlon, make a little more $, new job for Pruth, go to Argentina (my first choice was Peru but hey, there are no international psych conferences in Peru and I think P was tired of spending his vacation hiking), organize a brainstorm grp of smart womyn for business support/consulting, increase my public spkg experience and organize my goddamn desk. Hmmm. I guess most of those were met but some only partway (please see my desk). Actually I want,want,want, depserately want a pet as well, preferably a small mammal such as cat or dog but that’s still a no go for the hubby.
Hence, the dozen or so birds and 3 squirrels in the backyard.
Goals for this year:
Get off my butt and open some priv. practive work.
Go back to New Orleans again.
Get thee to Taiwan and improve my Mandarin so I can actually sound more like a person with a doctorate.
Another triathlon, or else a long run race, preferably at a heck of a lot better time than I am currently pacing!
improve my married life by hiring a housecleaner & buying a dishwasher
More public spkg and training
start rock climbing again
keep working on that desk and the file cabinets
cajole P into making my website
start working on him for Peru again…
and most importantly-create another year’s worth of happy memories and photos of good times to treasure.
When we were at Tikal in Guatemala, it was noted that the world would end in 2012. Seems like we’re about headed in that direction, what with mad cow/bird flu/Iran/Iraq/NRA/fundamentalist fanatics/global warming/mercury poisoning/teflon poisoning/etc etc.
I intend to work hard, BUT have a REALLY good time ’til the very end! c’est la vie. My advice: Drink the good coffee,the good wine, don’t eat cheap bread nor cheese, learn how to make at least one great meal, do good for someone who can not repay you, make sure you go to Argentina and lunch at Lola’s before you die!
